Ahyan Became Jointly Champion In Best of The West Under 1800

Ahyan and I played the 2 days format of Best of the West chess tournament organized by Bay Area Chess over the memorial day weekend. Ahyan played one section up at Under 1800 instead of Under 1600. I played in Under 2000 section. Ahyan won 5 games and lost 1 while I lost first 2 games and won the rest 4 games. As a result Ahyan will be wining some $800 or so while I will probably just a bit for jointly being 3rd with a bunch of others. Here are some of our games from the tournament.

The full standings may be found here.

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201905279402.3-15035222

http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201905279402.2-13178575

Tournament: Best of the West
Site: Santa Clara Marriott
SectionL Under 1800
Date: 27th May 2019
Round: 6
Board: 147
White: Ahyan Zaman (1568)
Black: Andrew Ng (1756)
Result: 1-0






Tournament: Best of the West
Site: Santa Clara Marriott
SectionL Under 2000
Date: 26th May 2019
Round: 4
White: Ashik Uzzaman (1950)
Black: Alvin Han (1664)
Result: 1-0


Tournament: Best of the West
Site: Santa Clara Marriott
SectionL Under 2000
Date: 27th May 2019
Round: 6
White: Ashik Uzzaman (1950)
Black: Chelsea Zhou (1727)
Result: 1-0



Here is a quiz from my 4th game where I checkmated my opponent with White to move. Can you find it?

Ahyan Finally Defeated Me In A Competitive Chess Tournament

This finally happened. Ahyan defeated me for the first time in a competitive chess tournament despite my rating being more than 300 points than his. We are playing in 19th Henry Memorial Chess tournament today at Mechanics Chess Institute, San Francisco. This is a 5 round Swiss where after first 3 rounds both of us were at 2. Consequently I got white in 4th round against him. I gained a pawn putting some positional pressure and got greedy to get the second pawn. So I got into a long defensive position and miscalculated a pin which I thought I can defend. Well no. Ahyan piled all his pieces on the pinned Bishop despite having only 1 minute left in his clock. As it was a game in 40 with 5 seconds delay, seeing very low time in his clock, I didn’t resign until getting checkmated with the hope to flag him down on time. But we it didn’t work out for me. I have never given up any game in my life, and did my best to win. But kudos to him. Recently he had been crossing me in tactics multiple times (my chess.com puzzle rush best is 26 and Ahyan’s is 27 for example). The moves of the game is below but u will put a diagram tonight when at home. Ahyan will get some prize money if he wins the last round that we are about to head into.

Won Against GM Susan Polgar in Simultaneous Game at World Open Boys & Girls Qualifier, Shaumburg, IL

GM Susan Polgar game a simul at November 1st 2014 in Hyatt Regency Shaumburg, IL where World Youth Boys & Girls Qualifier tournament was going on. Both parents and kids were allowed to participate in the tournament. I believe I was the only parent playing the simul along with 22 other kids including my son Ahyan Zaman in next board to me. As far as I know I was the only person who won and Susan won in the rest of the boards. Last time I played against Susan was in another Simul given by her in Atlanta, Georgia at 2005 where I accepted a draw offer by her in a better position. My Simul record looks good as I also drew in a better position against GM Daniel Naroditsky earlier this year where he defended a difficult exchange down end game in that simul.

Time for Millionaire Chess Tournament in Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

So the time has finally arrived. Millionaire Chess Tournament is starting in less than 3 days from now on for the duration of 9th October to 13th October. Day after tomorrow I will be flying to Las Vegas from San Francisco with my family to participate in this tournament. My son Ahyan Zaman will be playing in the Under 1400 section while I will be playing in Under 2200 section. My wife Shusmita Haque, daughter Suhalia Zaman and mother-in-law will be going with us as well.

I was one of the early supporters of this event as I saw how immensely chess community will be benefited if this high stake chess tournament succeeds and becomes a repeated tournament in future. My son won the early bird lottery and got 5 nights of free hotel stay in Planet Hollywood which is also the playing venue. We are also the first 76 lucky participants who have been rewarded the lifetime VIP membership for Millionaire Chess, which means in all future events we will be paying only 50% of the entry fee! Over the last 10 months, one of the most important events in my life has been circling around this event because its not just a million dollar prize money but also a defining moment in US chess history that will be  talked about for long, for many reasons. As of now 525 players from 42 countries are heading towards the sincity including more than 30 grand masters to play in this event accompanied by friends and family.

This event got me introduced to some finest people in the US Chess Network including Grand Master Maurice Ashley and business woman Amy Lee who are the owners of Millionaire Chess LLC. And I hope to see many more stellar personalities during the tournament. Incidentally my team 003 is the second largest team playing in the event with close to 30 members. This is the event that got me and my family into New York Times even before the event started. My son will turn 8 years during this event at National US Chess Day - October 12th. I have got tremendous encouragement from my friends and colleagues. You will be surprised that 3 of my colleagues are flying at 10th October to Las Vegas just to cheer me up in the venue from spectator's place - William Jager, John Jackson and Paul Endo - none of whom are chess players themselves. For those who won't be able to fly there, you can follow the live streaming of the event below -

http://millionairechess.com/live-stream

or 

http://new.livestream.com/computime-inc/events/3457396

Even easier will be if you download in your iPhone or Android the following mobile app "Millionaire Chess" and follow the live feeds.

I am prepared - not because I will win the first prize 40 thousand dollars in my section, but because I will be getting in touch with a highly enthusiastic crowd to whom chess means a big thing in life. I and my family want to go through this absorbing experience and hopefully will have a memorable time. Wish us good luck!

Ashik vs Pranav Senthilkumar, Ameteur Team West 2014, Round 4

After making move 23 my opponent forwarded his hand, a gesture that i took as if he resigned. So we stopped the clock and were talking about how i blundered a piece. After a while when he saw i wrote 1-0 in my scoresheet, he said he offerred me a draw! I said why would i take a draw when it is completely winning for me. So we setup the pieces again and continued from here. He eventually resigned not long after.

Ashik Elchonon Daichmann, Foxwoods Open, Round 3

My opponent didn't touch the chess clock in this game. He had a friend who did it on his behalf. I asked why and his friend its some Jewish thing. So I had no issue with that. But its quite interseting!

Life's too short for chess

Life's too short for chess. The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. … I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists. That was said by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), French artist.

The Arab traveler Al-Biruni rediscovered chess in Indus valley now in present day Pakistan. He is considered responsible for reintroducing ito the Islamic world, and thence to medieval Europe in tenth century. Archealogists have found artifacts resembling to chess pieces in the ruins of Moenjodaro in Indus valley. It Is believed that the ancient name of the game of chess was Chatrunga and It was played in Indus valley since 1000 BC or more. The centuries old story of "Sessa" the inventor of the game of chess goes some thing like this. Sessa traveled to Persia and presented his invented game to the King. He went to Persia because nobody appreciated his work in India. And Persia was famous those days for art, culture and education. The game was liked by the king so much that he asked Sessa to ask for recompense whatever he wished.

Sessa modestly requested to be given one grain of wheat for the first square of the chess board, two for the second, four for the third and so on doubling each time up to 64th square. Eventually the wise men of the king added the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 etc and found the sum of series to 64 terms or levels and concludeded that was not enough wheat in the kingdom to meet the demand of Sessa. Can you work out that sum?

"Life's too short for chess" is a quote attributed to Henry J. Byron.